Publication Date: October 31, 2026
A millionaire, long suspected of killing his wife, is murdered in his bedroom. Despite his mansion’s advanced security system, someone strangled him under impossible circumstances. When a death row inmate is also brutally slain, it becomes clear that an invisible assailant is conducting vigilante “executions.”
A monstrous and powerful paranormal entity draws police detective Rex Justison and psychic detective Alicia Masters into the investigation. Despite being forced to deal with their personal conflicts and guilt, they struggle to defeat a seemingly indestructible foe.
But when the supernatural assassin targets Rex himself, Alicia must wage a perilous, mind-bending battle to save the man she loves.
A police officer and psychic pair up to solve an impossible murder while confronting their own ghosts from the past in Weldon Burge’s dynamic thriller, Enter Vengeance.
In the first installment of a new paranormal police procedural, Detective Rex Justison is still struggling with guilt after a police chase ends with the accidental death of a young child. On the heels of this internal investigation, a local rich bigwig named J.D. Cullen is found strangled to death in his mansion across town, despite the fact that his room was locked and a bodyguard was on duty outside all night. Further forensics reveal more startling details that point to a potential paranormal source.
Meanwhile, Alicia Masters tours the local California news outlets to discuss her new book. She is a celebrity psychic whose assistance has helped the Point Winstead authorities solve another cold case. Alicia’s unique skills allow her to touch objects to read the people and events behind them, a gift she calls psychometry. When she has a vision of a suffocating presence coming near to Rex, she realizes she needs to warn him—despite the difficult circumstances of their parting of ways years earlier.
More murders, however, cast a chill over Rex and Alicia’s attempts at rekindling a romance both felt but never acted on. With the Cullen case hitting a dead end, death row inmates in the local state penitentiary begin to die before their date with the executioner, and Alicia’s psychometry readings terrify her. Something unnatural is happening, but how can it be stopped? Along with an ambitious reporter, Amanda Chase, the trio works together to discover the mythological provenance of an entity named Tisiphone, who models herself on one of the Greek Furies, known to be the “avenger of blood.”
Burge crafts a solid story with slightly uneven protagonists. Rex is a man shadowed by guilt and emotional paralysis after his wife’s recent death from cancer. He does not communicate his true feelings for Alicia, already established when the novel begins, which belies the fact that this is the first in a series. Alicia, meanwhile, comes off as thirsty for Rex’s attention, even when he is cold and distant.
The locked room aspect of the mystery relies on supernatural explanation, but Burge does decent work crafting the Tisiphone storyline around this conceit that adds a level of intrigue. The moments where Tisiphone communicates with various members of the police and media are far-fetched even for a paranormal thriller, but these conversations indicate the motive behind the diabolical actions.
While the story still works as a standalone, there are too many references to Rex and Alicia’s previous exploits to make the story its own from start to finish. Odd conversations around the moral and ethical implications of capital punishment are salted in as a technique to highlight Rex’s indifference to the death penalty. Again, much of this story points to one further back in time, leaving the reader pedaling to catch up.
The characters and story offer a promising setup for those who enjoy a good paranormal thriller, but the ending leaves something to be desired: it arrives too fast and too pat. It will be interesting to see how Burge moves these characters forward, especially after a clever reveal hints at Rex’s own psychic abilities. What will Justison and Masters be able to accomplish next?
Who you gonna call when a murderer takes ethereal form? Enter Vengeance points to Justison and Masters for answers.
Weldon Burge is the author of the Ezekiel Marrs thriller series published by Smart Rhino Publications. HARVESTER OF SORROW is the first novel in the series. His latest novel, ENTER VENGEANCE, is a paranormal police procedural, the first in the Justison & Masters thrillers. His most recent collection of short stories is TOXIC CANDY.
